Unlock more growth with strategic business processes

There may be many times as a financial advisor you wish that you only had to meet with clients. There’s more that goes into being an advisor than that though, even if you have a team you delegate to. The more people involved in your practice, the more important good processes become for increasing efficiency, consistency, scalability, client satisfaction, and helping with compliance and legal issues.

Here are a few processes you may want to consider that MDRT members say work well for them.

Online reviews

We get our clients to complete their own information reviews online, and we’re informed of any changes and request contact/visit as required. This has freed up more time to focus on new clients and our own growth.
Michael Bibb, Dip PFS, BA, 11-year MDRT member from Warwick, England, UK

Training video library

We use quite a lot of outsourced processes or tools. For in-house processes, my team manages a how-to video library that we can easily use and update as required. We don’t believe in making the horse go faster if someone has already invented the car.

The video library is updated as new processes arrive. If we’re implementing a new software or service provider into the business, we ask if we can record their training sessions so that we can keep these in our training library. No one has said no yet! Staff are encouraged to find a better way if the process they’re using is no longer working for them.
Amanda Cassar, MFP, AFP, 12-year MDRT member from Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

Targeting clients near arrears

We undertook a new spreadsheet/process so a director could get an executive summary across all insurers at any one time of how many arrears there are in real time. The reason for this was the changing economy and a spike in arrears. The process didn’t change. It’s just that more staff were trained, and we worked collectively to improve the reporting of this. This allows us to find more vulnerable clients, which was any lapsed or reinstatement underway. We have 6,000 risk management clients, meaning there are a number on the go at any one time. Now we are spending more time reviewing those that need more targeted care.
Katrina Ann Church, 10-year MDRT member from Auckland, New Zealand

Surveying clients

We survey clients through an external provider for efficiency, and it removes bias. It’s outstanding, as we really get to understand what our clients (and policyholders) want from us and think about us.
Hari Maragos, CFP, TEP, nine-year MDRT member from Bundoora, Victoria, Australia

These ideas were generated by the 2024 MDRT Business Strategy and Planning Task Force.

For more MDRT member-exclusive strategy and process-enhancing ideas:

• Watch “Proven strategies for achieving Top of the Table every year”
• Watch “How a business strategy multiplies success”
• Read “Develop processes around your new business model”